Monday, August 22, 2011

Sources of Indian Archeology

Came across a wonderful article on sources of Indian archeology. Pasted below for your quick reference.


Sources of Indian archaeology comprise of the different inscriptions, coins, terracotta and architectural structures that are built in different ages by different dynasties. These are reckoned as the important evidences that justify the Indian history from all the aspects of art, culture and society.

One of the main evidences available in the sources of Indian archaeology is the coins of different dynasties. Principally, two types of coins first appear in the early historic Indian archaeological records that are punch-marked silver and copper coins and un-inscribed cast copper coins. The punch-marked coins were made by imprinting symbols on the obverse and reverse of these coins by individual punches. These coins were made mostly of silver and, in a much lesser quantity, of copper. The weight system was linked to the weight of a particular type of seed, which was expressed as 'rati' or 'ratti' weight. The punched symbols include a singularly wide range of motifs like geometric patterns, plants, weapons, minuscule representations of humans, and some animals like elephants, hares, bulls, dogs, etc. These motifs are said to run into several hundred varieties. According to numismatists of modern India, each of the symbols is found confined to the coins of a particular area or on those of a particular variety or type. The coins of each of these states differ from one another in their execution, fabric, weight, quality of metal and symbology. This offers a most interesting line of enquiry and speaks more eloquently of the extent of monetary economy in early historic India than anything else.

As far as the regional divisions of early punch-marked coins are concerned, the silver bent-bar coins of Gandhara form a special category and so does the group of coins which are small, globular and bear the imprint of a single punch. The latter category does not seem to be confined to a single region.

At Kausambi, the un-inscribed cast copper coins are thus considerably earlier than the silver punch-marked coins. Apart from these, the extensive distribution of black-and-red ware sites in the Sonabhadra region on one of the routes between Gangetic India and central India. As far as the other coins of early period are concerned, mentioning of the presence of the Achaemenid daric or 'sigloi' type in a hoard of the Bhir mound of Taxila, which makes sense in view of the Achaemenid occupation of the area, and the early inscribed copper coins of the Chola, Pandya and Chera kings of the south is important. The earlier square coins like Peruvaluthi clearly stand as testimony that the Tamil kings started issuing coins as early as the 3rd century BC. Before this, the local punch-marked coins as suggested by the fish, bow-and-arrow symbols insignia of the Pandyas and Cheras respectively are found.

From the late centuries BC onwards, the coin range of the north-western region is dominated, perhaps exclusively, by the coins of the Indo-Greeks, Indo-Scythians and Indo-Parthians till the coins issued by the Kushana kings supplant them not merely here but also over a very large tract of Gangetic India. There is a world of difference between the 'Attic-standard' (the standard introduced by Alexander in his empire and accepted by his successors in the east), 'drachms' and 'tetradrachms' of the Bactrian Greek kings up to Euthydemus II and the introduction of 'Indian-standard' coins with bilingual inscriptions (Greek on one face and Prakrit on the obverse) from Agathocles onwards. It has been evidenced that the Bactrian Greek king Demetrius I, who first tried his strength in the south of the Hindukush in the wake of the Mauryan decline, introduced a new coin-type with die-struck punch-mark symbols for his territories south of the Hindukush, which was still used to the punch-marked system. This underlines once again the tremendous significance of the Hindukush as providing a firm geo-political limit of the South Asian land mass. The coins of Agathocles and the later Indo-Greek coins bear the replicas of Indian deities such as "Brahmi Script" or "Kharosthi Script" the Greek name gets Indianised; Agathocles becomes 'Agathuklaya' and Pantaleon 'Pamtaleva'. The Indo-Scythian kings like Maues, Azes I and others and the Indo-Parthians like Gondophares are very much in the Indianized Indo-Greek tradition.

India was not ignored in the Kushana coinage. Even in the first group of Kushana issues under Kujula Kadphises the 'bull' appears on one type and 'Kharosthi' as the bilingual counterpart of 'Greek' in all. Kujula's coins were all in copper, but Wima Kadphises, his successor, introduced gold coins of three denominations on the model of the Roman coins which were then being imported into south Asia as part of Indo-Roman trade. However, 'bull' and 'Lord Shiva' figure in the Wima coinage, also continued the tradition of bilingual (Greek and Kharoshthi) inscriptions. What is important, however, is that with their extensive possessions in central Asia and with the whole of Afghanistan in their control, the Kushana kings and their coinage were influenced by motley of elements: Greek, Iranian and Indian. The king after Wima, 'Kanishka', retains Shiva and introduces 'Lord Buddha',as deities on his coins, but a whole host of Iranian and Greek deities also make their appearance on his coins. On the coins of Huvishka 'Uma' and 'Karttikeya' find a place along with Shiva.

In North India as a whole the phase of early coins was succeeded by an extensive range of local coinage belonging either to kings or tribal republics. The punch-mark tradition is now replaced by the die tradition, but the same symbols continue to occur. As far as the political history based on kings of different areas (Ayodhya, Panchala) and tribal republics like the Yaudheyas, Arjunayanas, etc. are concerned, these coins constitute the principal source of study. In the next phase, of course, the Kushana coinage takes over, leaving its mark in different forms even in the post-Kushana coinage.

The tradition of the coinage system in the post-Maurya phase in south India and the Deccan belongs to royal families such as 'Sadakana' and the succeeding 'Ananda' families in Karnataka, and the 'Kura' family of the Deccan. These are die-struck coins but the punch-marked symbols continue to occur. This particular tradition of local coinage is soon overshadowed by the coinage of the Satavahana kings, issued mostly in lead and copper. Quite unusually, some Satavahana kings of the early centuries AD issued silver coins bearing their own portraitures and names (in Prakrit written in Brahmi script). It is obviously a case of Indo-Greek influence or the influence of Roman coins flowing by now in peninsular India in thousands. The successors of the Satavahanas, such as the Ikshakus of Andhra Pradesh, continue the Satavahana coinage tradition in some way. The case of the Satavahana contemporaries in western India, the 'Western Kshatrapas' with their two branches of Kshaharatas and Karadamakas, shows some influence of the Indo-Greek or Roman coinage in the sense that a royal bust is placed on one side, but the inscriptions are in Sanskrit and Prakrit language. The north-western tradition had a faint echo in the coinage of west India and the Deccan but that was purely ephemeral. The Kushanas, with all their central Asiatic interests, could not forget south Asia altogether.

In addition to the coins in medieval India there are other sources that provide ample information to the study of Indian archaeology namely sculpture, terracotta and painting. It is in the Mauryan period that the growth of sculptural art was witnessed after an interregnum of more than a thousand years since the end of the Indus civilization which had a complete command over stone-cutting and sculpting. It is not known how the Indus tradition was passed on or whether the Mauryan period brought about a completely new phase of Indian stone-cutting. This uncertainty once impelled scholars to look for the genesis of Mauryan art in the Achaemenid imperial style and stone-cutting tradition. While some interaction between the Mauryans and the contemporary artists of western Asia is entirely probable and some features of Mauryan art bear its signature. Second, the Mauryan terracottas too mark a new phase in the history of Indian terracotta art. One need not deny a distinct sense of modelling in some pre-Mauryan terracottas of the Ganga valley, but the evidence is not pervasive. The Indian terracottas assume a distinct time-bound style in the Mauryan period. From both these points of view the Mauryan art marks a new phase in the history of ancient Indian art.

The Ashokan pillars are all monolithic and sculpted and are considered, along with their animal capitals above, parts of the sculptural tradition. Parts of Mauryan capitals and broken pillars of the same period occur at a number of other places. The Rampurwa bull is firmly modelled but full of natural dynamism in the basic style of the elephant which emerges out of the live rock at Dhauli and the small elephants which occur on the facade of the Lomash Rishi cave in the Barabar hills. The tradition of naturalism is equally manifest in the bull, lion, horse and elephant which are shown along the diameter of the abacus of the Sarnath capital and in the row of geese shown in the sides of the Bodhi throne of Bodh Gaya. The honeysuckles, rosettes, palmettes, lotus-buds, bead-and-reels and volutes as designs on some capitals foreshadow the long history of such motifs in Indian art. The Didarganj specimen, which is in the form of a female fly-whisk-bearer, combines dignity with statuesque sensuousness. The much smaller mustachioed human head and a few animal heads from the late Mauryan level at Sarnathand the small, partly broken, limestone image  of a  humpless  bull or cow  from  Harinarayanpur  strengthen  the assumption that the range of Mauryan art is much wider than the assumed circle of court art. Ringstones of soapstone and metamorphosed schist reveal a large range of iconographic elements, among which the figure of the earth goddess or Prithvi, of a type found in gold at Lauriya Nandangarh, seems to be common. Miscellaneous stone reliefs, including three pairs of frolicking male and female on a panel of three scenes from Rajgir, are reminiscent of the iconographic tradition of this type. The flounced-skirted and heavily coiffured females that one sees as a dominant type in the Mauryan terracottas are much less attractive than the naturalistic representations of Mauryan terracotta elephants.

The recent discoveries of seemingly contemporary stupa railings and medallions in Orissa and the Kanpur district of Uttar Pradeshalong with the excavated stupa remains at Pauni in Berar indicate that the distribution of the Sunga period and immediately later stupas is more widespread than its distribution along the Gangetic valley-Deccan route at Bodh Gaya, Bharhut and Sanchi would suggest.

That the stupa complex on the Sanchi hill was not an isolated complex but a part of a wider arrangement covering several places and is one of the excavated areas from where several sources have been derived. Supreme importance is given in this art to human figures which are now elongated and sturdy and shows relief after relief of frenzied sensuous humans with a better sense of perspective, more light and shade and rhythmic lines leading to a dynamic compositional unity and these reliefs are the representations of the most voluptuous and the most delicate flower of Indian sculpture.

Voluptuousness with less of delicacy and a lot more of earthbound strength was the characteristic feature of the yakshinis of the Mathura school of sculpture. They occur as components of the stupa remains (presumably Jaina in affiliation) at Kankali Tila in Mathura. It is also here that one can trace the transformation of primitive earth-bound yakshas into standing Bodhisattva type images, of which the one dedicated by Bhikshu Bala is a famous example. The diverse elements which represent Gandhara art are the following: Buddhism, both in spirit and iconography; central Asian influence in the royal attire; Iranian sun and moon gods; and finally, the row of Classical garland-bearing figures and Corinthian pilasters. It has been designated as 'the Indus-Oxus school of Buddhist art' and its area of origin has been supposed to be the Swat valley.

Another distinct genre of Indian art of the period is ivory. The Kushana period ivories provide a rapturous mix of sensuousness and elegance in their female forms. These compare well with the sculptural and terracotta specimens of the Sunga period.

Moreover the architectural evidences are other sources of Indian archaeology. Starting from the early historic Buddhist architecture, encompassing stupas, chaitya halls and monasteries, the architectural evidences are scattered hither and thither and they all are the evidences of the early history of India. The pillars and stupas under the reigning period of the Sunga period, the Satavahana kings; et al serves as the sources of the study of Indian archaeology. The stupa plan and its decorative styles were different from one another and with time the stupa plans differed from area to area. For instance, in some stupas at Nagarjunakonda the walls were arranged in the form of a multiple-spoked wheel, whereas in the Gandhara region the miniature stupa from Loriyan Tongai stands on an oblong platform with sides showing sculptured panels and Corinthian pilasters.

Some of the architectural constructions that date from the third century BC are found and they refer to the art and architectural evidences of the era like the chaitya-halls, a major form of Buddhist architecture. Rock-cut examples with variations in planning occur in the Sudama and Lomas Rishi caves of the Barabar hills date from the same period. Broadly similar plans from later contexts (c. first century BC) occur in the Tulja-Lena group of rock-cut caves at Junnar near Nasik, Kondivte in Mumbai and Guntupalle in the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh. Apsidal chaitya halls dating from the third century BC have been noticed in the Sanchi temple and at Sarnath and Rajgir (below Maniyar Math). Free-standing Hindu temples occur only from the Gupta period onwards, although shrines have been represented in sculptural reliefs from Mathura, Sanchi and Bharhut. Excavated examples of earlier dates are still rare and occur at Sanchi, Vidisa, Nagari and Sonkh. The Sonkh specimen, an apsidal Naga temple, belongs to the second century AD.  Recently, an apsidal structure on rammed burnt-brick foundation has been dated to the late Mauryan period at Sarnath.

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Thursday, August 18, 2011

Soviet Summer....


The attempted Moscow coup of August 1991 did not come completely out of the blue.

At the start of the year, Soviet troops had tried to storm the parliament in Lithuania, apparently hoping to force the breakaway republic back under central control.

It was obvious the order came from Moscow. Less clear, though, was how far President Gorbachev was involved.

At the time, he was evasive about his role. Now he admits that the attack happened behind his back, organised by hardline opponents in his own government. It was a sign that his power was slipping away.

"I never gave them permission to impose martial law or presidential rule. They took the decision," Mr Gorbachev says.

"People don't realise that the worst thing for me was that I didn't know."

Treason fear

The US government was acutely aware of how incendiary the whole issue of nationalism in the 15 Soviet republics was and how difficult it would be for Mr Gorbachev to allow the Baltic states to follow Eastern Europe in breaking free.
"He would have been accused of treason," says the US Ambassador to Moscow, Jack Matlock, looking back. "If he had agreed to this, the military and the party would have removed him.

"You know, if a coup attempt had occurred earlier than it did, it could well have been successful. At any time in 1990, there could have been a successful coup against him."

 It took three days for the attempted coup to fail Nonetheless, the attempt to re-impose Moscow rule on Lithuania alarmed the Americans.

President George Bush despatched Ambassador Matlock to the Kremlin to warn Mr Gorbachev that further violence would affect US-Soviet relations.

"He listened carefully," Matlock recalls. "And then he said: 'Jack, please explain to your president, this country is on the brink of civil war. And as president I must do all I can to prevent that. And that means I'm going to have to zig and zag. My goals are the same. Please reassure your president and help him understand'."

'Fed up'

Mr Gorbachev was under pressure from other quarters, too. For ordinary people, economic upheaval was beginning to make life unbearable.

Mr Gorbachev took the brunt of their rage.

Sir John Major, British prime minister at the time, recalls Mr Gorbachev wryly recounting a joke.

"He smiled and told me the following story: there was a food shortage in Moscow and people were queuing for bread. They'd been queuing a long time and they were getting very irritated.

 "And one man turned in the queue to his neighbour and said: 'I'm fed up with this, I blame Gorbachev, I'm going to kill Gorbachev,' and off he went. He came back two days later and the people in the queue said: 'Did you kill Gorbachev?' 'No,' he replied 'The queue to kill Gorbachev was just too long'."

Mr Gorbachev also faced the emergence of a powerful pro-reform opponent.

Boris Yeltsin, once his political protege, was now Russian president, a new post which he had won by a landslide in popular direct elections.

Mr Gorbachev, by contrast, was elevated to the position of Soviet president only by the Soviet parliament, not the people, so could not lay claim to a similar mandate.

Looking back, Mr Gorbachev cannot conceal his bitterness towards Yeltsin.

"I made a mistake," says Mr Gorbachev now, "I should have got rid of him. It was because of Yeltsin that events unfolded as they did."

Advance warning

In late June 1991, the Americans got a tip off that Mr Gorbachev's own security and defence ministers might be planning a coup against him.

Once again, it was Ambassador Matlock who went to warn the Soviet president.

"I told him: 'We have information which we cannot confirm, but it's more than a rumour, that a coup is being organised against you and it could happen at any time'," remembers Mr Matlock.

"But he didn't take it seriously. As a matter of fact he actually laughed, turned to his assistant, who was the only other person in the room, and said something about naive Americans."

But the rumour was correct.

In mid-August the coup plotters decided to act. The catalyst, it seems, was a private conversation they overheard between Mr Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin and the president of Kazakhstan.

The men were conferring on plans for a new Union Treaty to be signed on 20 August, which would overhaul relations between the republics and central government - and they had talked openly about the opponents in government they would need to remove from office.

 Boris Yeltsin stayed on as president of the Russian Federation until 1999 What Mr Gorbachev and his colleagues did not realise was that the plotters were listening in - a stupid mistake, says Mr Gorbachev.

"Kryuchkov, the KGB chief, was recording us. He gave the tape to Yazov, the defence minister, to listen to. And then the others, too. In a word, they all took fright and concluded they had nothing to lose. So they decided to go for a coup d'etat."

The coup plotters' first plan was to co-opt Mr Gorbachev. A delegation flew down to the Black Sea villa where he was taking a weekend break to give him an ultimatum: either declare a state of emergency or else hand over power.

Mr Gorbachev says he realised something was wrong even before they arrived.
"I started to pick up phones, and not a single one was working. Not a single telephone was working. They cut me off and isolated me as they were approaching, so that I would not be able to contact anyone."

'Swearing'

According to one version of events, his response to the plotters was evasive. But Mr Gorbachev tells a different story.

"When I realised what was about to happen, I called in my wife Raisa, our daughter and son-in-law and said: 'Look, very dangerous events are about to unfold. I cannot go for a compromise with them, and you must know this.' They said whatever happened, they'd be with me till the end."

Then he says the delegation walked in and an angry exchange followed.

 Soviet hardliners sent army tanks onto the streets of Moscow "I even swore at them," says Mr Gorbachev. "I said 'Go and convene a Congress… and we'll see whose plan gets more support, yours or mine'."

The plotters flew back to Moscow empty-handed to enact the state of emergency without him, while Mr Gorbachev and his family were left under house arrest, unsure whether they could even trust their bodyguards.

In Moscow, Mr Gorbachev was seen as an absent, passive victim. Resistance to what turned out to be an abortive coup was led by Boris Yeltsin and supported by thousands of ordinary citizens and some members of the military, who refused to obey orders to turn on their own people.

When Mr Gorbachev and his family returned to Moscow after it was all over, some three days later, it soon became clear that power had shifted.

Boris Yeltsin was asserting his right to rule Russia. Other leaders were taking similar steps in other republics.

Fast decision

In December 1991, Yeltsin suggested to the presidents of Ukraine and Belarus, Leonid Kravchuk and Stanislav Shushkevich, that they should meet separately to talk about the future without Mr Gorbachev, who was still trying to hammer out a new Union Treaty.

At an informal gathering in Belarus, they decided to dissolve the Soviet Union.
Stanislav Shushkevich remembers it as an almost impromptu decision.

"Yeltsin said, 'Would you agree for the Soviet Union to end its existence?' I said OK and Kravchuk said OK too.

"It only really dawned on me afterwards, when my car came to take me home what we'd done.

"I was thinking, 'Tomorrow I need to present this to the Belarus parliament and they could throw it out, because this is a momentous thing we've done'."

They also, of course, had to inform the outside world.

Mr Shushkevich says it was decided he would call Mr Gorbachev while Yeltsin phoned the US president.

"When they finally put me through to Gorbachev, Yeltsin was already on the phone to Bush.

"So I told Mikhail Sergeyevich (Gorbachev) and he said: 'Can you imagine what the outside world will think of this?' In other words: 'You idiots for getting involved in this.'

"And I said, 'Well, actually, Yeltsin is speaking to President Bush right now.'
"On the other end of the phone there was a silence, and then Mr Gorbachev hung up."

Mr Gorbachev had no choice but to resign. After six years in power, he stood down at the end of December 1991, just before the Soviet Union ceased its existence. He handed over all the relevant papers and authorities to Boris Yeltsin. The two men never spoke again.

To this day, Mr Gorbachev is scathing about him.

"This is an epic story with Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin as its main character. He's a scoundrel and a traitor. We sat down and agreed how things would be. Then when we'd parted to set in motion what we'd agreed, he began scheming behind my back. He was a traitor."

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Friday’s Fury a Global Worry

The last Friday’s release definitely was an instant hit. The only concern was it neither made money nor fans but triggered a fear of double dip recession. The American economic hegemony saw its downturn. The huge debt crisis, despite which it has been trying to grow, saw the first hurdle post its 2008 recovery. Although the political system agreed to increase the debt limit up to $4trillion but in the process they have created a confidence loss for investors. S&P downgrades debt rating of US for the first time in history.
Market economy had a flip side to it, which was less talked about by the economists. Adam smith credited the free market mechanism to the invisible hands of market, projecting a hopeful picture of growth and recovery. This hopeful picture might be the reason why economic super powers like US went for deficit financing as a regular measure to run the government and public finances. In a free market, deficit financing increased the depth of the debt trouble and the wide gap is visible only now. US have been running in huge deficit gap for the past decade. Creating worries for the investors. The only faithful instrument being the US treasury bills which has attracted the investors. After today’s downgrading it is implied that these US treasury bills also carry risk with them, hence creating a worry for investors.
Definitely much macro-economic perspective would be the order of the day in coming days. But looking closely what it holds as a lesson for India or for any Individual. It boils down to the fact “ If you live on credit without paying back then with time your interest increases much high than your credit amount that leads you to default the payment.” This defaulting when continues for much longer period creates a crisis and so on.
How to come out of the crisis?
There are some very fundamental suggestions that can be practiced:-
·         Primary Consumption based product manufacturing: Private consumption is one sector that has largest share in GDP of India. It means that maximum of our population are still at the first step of Maslow’s need hierarchy of basic needs i.e. primary needs of survival. If the food, cloth, housing sectors are given a push integrating with agricultural progress. We can possibly increase spending of population. Increased spending on private consumption is proportional to the per capita earning of individuals. It is disparity in incomes that creates a mismatch in our country. Still an increase in this sector would allow money to flow in the market at all income levels.

·         Moderate profit margin based practices: When we need people with funds to float their money in crucial time. Our assumption of long term benefit and affordable schemes can prove to be beneficial in the purpose. The industry with high profit margins in long term loose the growth path as they meet with saturation in demand. A moderate margin can increase the consumer base and thus include larger section of population. Thus giving market participation to many who still to benefit from market.

·         Infrastructure creation and maintenance: As in a family parents think about their children and their future. When the children grow up to become parent they thing about the future of their children. Looking at the analogy, we should create infrastructure future ready and maintain the existing infrastructure at upgradable levels. Infrastructure can be of roads, electricity, communication network, IT or other services etc. Better would be a private participation and opportunity to many than single conglomerate agency. This could also add up to new employment opportunity at skilled worker level and other levels.

·         Developing Domestic market specially capital market: At present very little number of people from the total earning population participate in capital market. It is visible that market is run by sentiments of the stock market. If maximum number of people utilise the opportunity at capital market, then domestic market sentiments can easily be judged by capital market. A better forecasting can be done and the dynamicity can be predicted much closely. Here comes the opportunity for capital market players to design proposals to target larger section of consumers to benefit organization, market and economy.

·         Welfare mode to regulatory mode of governance: Post Liberalisation era government addressed more of social sectorial needs leaving the other sectors for private players and MNC. In today’s time it is realised that government social benefit schemes is not a Fit for all solution. Diverse region, economy and natural region possess challenge to success of the schemes. Corporate Social Responsibilities is seen as a newer area where government is keen to create a mandate. It would be much better if social sector is also open to private player which would ultimately provide flexibility and development at a fast pace. Government can take the function of regulatory bodies overlooking the legal, jurisdictional and competitive aspect of the player. It would help in reducing the government spending and more transparent auditing of the process.
These methods as an immediate response would help to design a long term plans for the economy, even create a fundamental base of development in the whole country. A successful economy can be gauged by the value principal of survival, growth and profits. The global threats of market crisis can be faced with strong domestic economy. The major challenge remains to integrate the state wide economy to national economy to remove the disparity of regions. The opportunity are plenty it is only time which can predict new economy emerging from the global challenges.
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A pragmatic analysis by Abhilash Mohapatra. The next few weeks would be interesting to keep a watch on. For more details, you can mail at indianpolicy2010@gmail.com

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Horn of Africa Food Crisis



Five Things to Know About the Horn of Africa Food Crisis

Famine has returned to the Horn of Africa, and Somalia is the worst hit. For the first time since the early 90s, the United Nations has declared a famine in parts of southern Somalia, meaning that more than 30 percent of the population is malnourished. All told, 3.7 million Somalis are in need of immediate food aid, part of some 11.5 million in need across the Horn of Africa. Each month, huge streams of refugees cross the border into Ethiopia and Kenya–nearly 170,000 since January–spreading the humanitarian crisis with them. Tens of thousands have already died.

At fault are three big factors. First, rainfall has been sparse for the past two years, causing widespread crop failures and depletion of food reserves. Second, food prices worldwide have skyrocketed, so the shortfall in produce among the poor cannot be made up in trade and imports. Finally, chronic insecurity in southern Somalia has exacerbated the situation. Much of southern Somalia is controlled by Al-Shabaab, the Islamist militant group at war with the internationally-backed Transitional Federal Government. Al-Shabaab has also prevented many international agencies from distributing food aid to affected areas.

It is only a matter of time before famine is declared in much of south Somalia. Somalia is at the center of the emergency, but much of the Horn of Africa is at risk. If humanitarian relief does not reach people in southern Somalia immediately, further refugee flows could undermine food security in neighboring countries.

The international community has to act –and act fast - to stop the growing crisis. As the U.S. and other governments consider their options, here are five things to keep in mind.

1. Don’t let Al-Shabaab deny your humanitarian impulse. The U.S. government has voiced concern that assistance to Somalia could end up in the hands of Al-Shabaab, a designated terrorist organization. As a result, in 2010, U.S. aid to Somalia dropped to just one tenth of what it was two years before. It is true that armed groups were “taxing” humanitarian aid, but this is unavoidable in complex emergencies. Whatever marginal benefit Al-Shabaab derives from foreign aid, it is far outweighed by the goodwill and increased stability that aid generates. This is also an important way to show Somalis and the Muslim world at large that the West cares about more than waging a “War on Terror”.

2. Instead, think of this as an opportunity. Al-Shabaab is not a monolithic organization. It includes both hardliners and pragmatists. In July, the organization made two statements, one appealing for a return of international humanitarian agencies and the other claiming that any news of famine was “sheer propaganda.” Boosting international aid may help to woo those members willing to renounce terrorism away from the increasingly unpopular hardliners.

3. That said, international efforts must work together. Attempts to stabilize Somalia must be coordinated and carefully managed. Reporting from Somalia suggests that much internal displacement is directly attributable to military campaigns by the internationally funded Transitional Federal Government. As much as possible, the military push against Al-Shabaab should not aggravate an already poor humanitarian situation. Aid should also not empower re-emerging warlords.

4. The best way to prevent famines over the long-term is to foster peace and stability. It’s no surprise that the crisis is much less serious in Somaliland and Puntland, autonomous regions in northern Somalia that have been relatively stable. Immediate, short-term food aid must be followed by longer-term efforts to promote stability and good governance. That means looking beyond the narrow focus of defeating Al-Shabaab. Given a corrupt and ineffective Transitional Federal Government, international donors should not focus exclusively on the central government in Mogadishu, but also support stable, responsive and accountable local authorities. Because of longstanding clan competition and mistrust, a decentralized form of government is much more appropriate in the current Somali environment.

5. Even if governments don’t launch a full-scale relief program, they can still help. For instance, the U.S. should temporarily lift Office of Foreign Asset Control restrictions, which prevent aid groups from operating in areas “controlled” by Al-Shabaab.

The international response to famine is typically presented as a humanitarian mission. While that alone more than justifies international involvement, governments should also consider that food aid in Somalia and the Horn of Africa is strategic - that it can change negative perceptions about the West and reduce insecurity in the whole region. They should get moving.